The present invention refers to a device for transport of bulk material or the like along a path e.g. a chute, to a collecting position, e.g. a container, by use of a feeder which is reciprocable along said path and which is provided with a scraper arranged to slide along the bottom of said path for pushing the bulk material in front of it during the forward motion of said feeder.
Transport devices of such type are used especially at inlet screens for water purification plants, power stations and the like where a continuous cleaning of the screens is required and where the collected material is deposited along the entire screen length in a chute of the type specified here above.
Such transport devices must work all around the year with a minimum of maintenance and a very reliable design is therefore required. During the cleaning of the chute it sometimes will happen that all the material is not scrapped away and that the scrapper at its return stroke will push this residual material to the opposite end of the chute where it due to space aspects is seldome possible to locate a second container. A considerable heap can thus be formed during a comparatively short time and this heap will grow in the transport direction of the chute and cause the effective cleaning length thereof to become shorter and shorter. Another drawback at a transport device of the above mentioned type is that the material when it by the scraper is pushed along the chute and down into a container at the end of the chute, in the container will form a heap nearest to the chute end and this will make a consecutive feeding out more difficult or even impossible.